Photo: Shhewitt · CC BY-SA 4.0Lewisporte faces fewer hazards than 93% of Canadian towns
Little of the land around Lewisporte has burned: 1.1% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.03% a year. Seismic risk runs low: $0.009 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. About as many homes carry radon around Lewisporte as elsewhere, 5% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Lewisporte a grade of A; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Lewisporte’s hazards
For Lewisporte, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Lewisporte faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Lewisporte: A
Two inputs always count for Lewisporte, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #8 of 32 in Newfoundland and Labrador and #272 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Lewisporte: 1.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Lewisporte’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Fire claims 0.03% of the land around Lewisporte each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Nothing inside 5 km of Lewisporte’s homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 8.1 km off.
Near or far, forest fuel covers a similar share around Lewisporte: 87% within 5 km and 89% within 25 km.
Shares of land within 5 and 25 km of populated blocks: burned at least once in 1986–2025 (CWFIS burned-area composite), forest fuel and grass (fire behaviour fuel types, 2026, 250 m grid).
Burn rate a year, towns in Newfoundland and Labrador · highest of 32
At 0.03% a year, Lewisporte ranks 12th of the 32 towns in Newfoundland and Labrador; Labrador City leads at 0.43%.
Each bar: the yearly average share of land within 25 km of a town’s homes that burned, 1986–2025 (CWFIS); the seven highest towns of 2,500 people or more.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Lewisporte reads low, with 92% of them; only 7.5% rank higher.
Bands of the yearly burn rate: low under 0.05%, moderate under 0.25%, high under 1%, very high 1% or more; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Canadian Wildland Fire Information System: National Burned Area Composite 1986–2025 and fire behaviour fuel types (2026), Natural Resources Canada. Measured within 25 km and 5 km of each populated dissemination area; past fire, not a forecast.
No flood study is listed for Lewisporte
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Lewisporte: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Lewisporte, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Missing from a well-mapped province: Lewisporte has no study, where 59% of towns in Newfoundland and Labrador have one against 58% nationally.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Lewisporte’s homes stand in a flood zone.
The inventory’s own caution (NRCan): “The Canada Flood Map (CFM) does not include every flood hazard map in Canada and may be incomplete or contain inaccuracies. It should not be relied upon as the official source of flood mapping information. Furthermore, if a map appears to be missing, this does not necessarily mean that the area has never been mapped. For the official version of a map, updated information, or confirmation of applicable regulations, please contact the local authority responsible for flood mapping.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Lewisporte just $0.009 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
0.3 times the typical $0.030: Lewisporte’s $0.009 is low for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Shaking damage around Lewisporte runs at $0.009 a year, near the $0.011 of the typical town in Newfoundland and Labrador; Holyrood has $0.015.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Most of Canada’s 2,611 towns (86%) face more earthquake damage than Lewisporte.
Each column: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more in that range of yearly loss per $1,000 (NRCan, 2022).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Lewisporte.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon about average around Lewisporte: 5% over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Central Regional Integrated Health Authority: radon tests
5% of tested homes around Lewisporte were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Lewisporte, 5% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 2% over 600, against a median of 4% in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
26% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Lewisporte’s 5–10% band, which holds 37%.
Each bar: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more whose survey area had that share of tests over 200 Bq/m³.
A low area share in Lewisporte doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Lewisporte
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Lewisporte; Alert Ready carries the urgent ones to phones, radio and TV.
| Alert | What it means |
|---|---|
| Warning | Severe weather is happening or about to: act now. |
| Watch | Conditions favour severe weather: be ready. |
| Advisory | Weather that is less severe but could disrupt the day. |
| Special weather statement | Unusual weather worth knowing about. |
| Special air quality statement | Poor air, often wildfire smoke. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Lewisporte come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Lewisporte faces
What to do about the hazards Lewisporte faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- Test for three months in winter.
- Over 200 Bq/m³: fix it.
- Kits are cheap; pros test too.
- Never drive through floodwater.
- Move papers and medicines upstairs.
- Ask whether your street is mapped.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Lewisporte.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Lewisporte’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Lewisporte, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Lewisporte is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Lewisporte
How is Lewisporte’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Lewisporte A, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Lewisporte at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 1.1% of the land around Lewisporte since 1986 (last in 1986); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Does Lewisporte flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Lewisporte’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
Is radon a problem in Lewisporte?
Around Lewisporte, 201 survey homes were tested and 5% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Lewisporte?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Lewisporte’s buildings lose $0.009 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Seismic risk: Natural Resources Canada. Radon: Health Canada. Wildfire: Canadian Wildland Fire Information System. Flood studies: Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.
Sources: NRCan, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model 2022 · Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes · CWFIS, National Burned Area Composite and FBP fuel types · NRCan, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).